Conrad Verner
Conrad Verner is an enthusiastic and self-proclaimed "huge fan" of Commander Shepard. __TOC__ Mass Effect In 2183, Conrad is on the Citadel, at the top of the stairs in the upper Markets on the Wards. Talking to Conrad will enable Shepard to further deal with him throughout their current adventures in the galaxy. After talking to Conrad, it becomes clear that he has a romanticised view of what life as a Spectre is like, and is more interested in the tall stories of Shepard's achievements. If Shepard tells him to get lost, Conrad will march off, determined to prove he too can represent humanity, after which he will not be seen again. An elevator announcement later explains his absence: Conrad picks a fight with a group of turians and is killed as a result. If Shepard is courteous, and agrees to give him an autograph, and then a photo, Conrad eventually convinces himself that he can be a hero as well, and asks Shepard to sign him on as a fellow Spectre and member of the squad. Shepard can charm Conrad and convince him to stay at home with his wife, in which case he leaves quietly. Alternatively, Shepard can intimidate him, to show him what it is like to have a gun in your face. Conrad will then renounce Shepard as his hero, and leave. Mass Effect 2 In 2185, Conrad is in the Eternity bar on Illium, impersonating an Alliance officer wearing replica N7 armor. He is causing trouble in the bar and demanding the deed to the place from the bartender, Matriarch Aethyta. Regardless of Shepard's actions towards him in 2183, he remembers Shepard putting a gun in his face. Even though doing so caused him to renounce the Commander as his hero, he has decided to travel around the galaxy to defeat crime despite having no formal training. He insists that the galaxy needed someone to step up and fight for humanity after Shepard's supposed death and he is fulfilling that role. Shepard can choose to hit him, fire a grazing shot or simply ask him why he is impersonating the Commander. Whatever the choice, Conrad claims that he is working for an "undercover officer" who told him that the Eternity bar is selling red sand, but further investigation reveals he was lied to in order for the "officer" to obtain the deeds to the bar. Confronting the "officer" at Gateway Personal Defense allows Shepard to get a discount. Conrad will praise Shepard and thank the Commander for returning from the dead, then leave. After that, it is reported on the news that Conrad has formed a charity foundation, "Shepards", for refugees and orphans. Conrad will storm off unhappily if Shepard tells him to get lost when first talking to him in the bar. Eventually, a news report will be heard reporting that Conrad has gotten himself killed attempting to capture transient youths hitching a ride on top of a bus. The report carries on detailing that Conrad fell from the bus, struck several passing cars and eventually fell into the power turbine of a bio-mass recycling facility. Mass Effect 3 If Shepard bothered to interact with Conrad twice before and Conrad didn't die horrifically both times, Shepard can see him again in the refugee sector of the Citadel in 2186 while investigating sabotage on local medical stations, near Avina, where he is actively recruiting for Cerberus—his reasoning being that his hero was previously aligned with the pro-human organization. Cerberus sabotaged the medi-gel stores while he had everyone distracted. Shepard tells him what he is doing is wrong, and realizing how he screwed up again, he agrees to stop, and then asks the Commander what he can do to help. This leads to finding out he has a doctoral degree in Xenoscience and sends Shepard a copy of his dissertation on dark energy. He is even acquainted with Gavin Hossle, who forwards some ancient tech schematics to help with the construction if the Commander assisted in retrieving Hossle's data on Feros. If the Commander obtained ten of Matriarch Dilinaga's Writings, and the Elkoss Combine Armory License in 2183, the schematics can be analyzed in full and the dissertation will be of additional use. If Shepard speaks to Conrad enough times, Conrad will reveal what happened to the orphan shelter he founded a few months ago. The shelter was doing really well until the Reapers attacked. Conrad continues by saying that he had to spend almost everything he had left to get the kids off-world. Shepard reassures Conrad that he did the right thing. If Shepard keeps talking to Conrad, the Commander can get him to talk about his friends and family; when asked if he lost anybody Conrad says that he has lost some of the former and had none of the latter to speak of. Shepard reminds Conrad of his wife, which he then reveals that he lied about. Conrad then admits that he has a "tasteful" picture of Shepard surrounded by candles as a shrine. Conrad later identifies his Cerberus contact to Shepard after the damage to the med stations has been mitigated. When the agent brings his gun up to the Commander, Conrad attempts to interpose himself to protect his hero. Luckily, Jenna had sabotaged the agent's gun, thereby saving Conrad. They then get acquainted over Conrad's relationship with Shepard. If Shepard never dealt with Jenna in 2183, Conrad will be shot dead by the Cerberus agent while attempting to save the Commander's life. Trivia *On Illium, if Shepard investigates what Conrad's job is, he will say he goes around righting wrongs, walking up to people who seem like they are just standing there waiting for him to talk to them. He also tells Shepard that sometimes he pokes through crates for extra credits. Conrad's behaviour is archetypical of the player character in most role-playing video games; BioWare is clearly making fun of the role-playing game genre. *If Shepard tells Conrad that the "cop" was a fake, he will mention she wanted to get coffee, and smiled while saying it. He says he is pretty sure this was a euphemism, which is supported by the fact that "coffee" is a commonly known nickname for sex in the beginning of relationships. *It is implied that Conrad's wife is glad to be rid of him, since she paid for his shuttle fare off-world. As he says it, the asari bartender can be seen in the background, shaking her head and making a facepalm. In Mass Effect 3 however, he later reveals the "wife" is a nonexistent entity. *A glitch in Mass Effect causes the Conrad encounter to be flagged both as "Intimidated" and "Charmed" in the importable save file, apparently leading to Mass Effect 2 picking the former over the latter and triggering Conrad to say that Shepard pointed a gun at him regardless of prior choice. **In Mass Effect 3, Conrad references the glitch, apologizing for accusing Shepard of pointing a gun at him if they hadn't, saying he was very stressed and confused at the time. *Audio files for the Mass Effect 2 encounter with Conrad after a "Charmed" resolution in Mass Effect are still present on the disc. Conrad is still found in Eternity, and is claiming to be a member of Shepard's squad; carrying on the Commander's work after their death. It seems the mission involving the Gateway Personal Defense clerk would then play out the same. *He also makes several in-jokes about the game mechanics, e.g. mentioning that he asks people all the questions that come up in his mind, and sometimes forgets which questions he already asked and asks them again. He is also unaware of thermal clips, still thinking that the weapons cool down after a while. Shepard explains to him that the cooling systems inside the guns were sacrificed to make room for thermal clips. Conrad replies that it's like ammunition and asks if you can still wait for the weapon to cool down by itself, and when Shepard answers no, Conrad says that it seems like a step backwards. *Jeff Page, the voice actor for Conrad, also provided the voice for Merchant Hing in Jade Empire, an earlier BioWare game. *According to Chris Priestly, Conrad was nearly cut from Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. Enough members of the dev team wanted him in, so he stayed.https://twitter.com/BioEvilChris/status/315858347209400321 *In Mass Effect 3: Citadel, during the firefight between Shepard and the clone, Shepard may yell, "Conrad Verner is better at being me than you are!" References Category:Recurring Characters Category:Citadel Category:Illium